As is known, many pourable products are sold in a wide range of containers, which are sterilized, filled and closed in container handling plants typically including a plurality of processing stations or machines, such as rinsing machines, filling machines, capping machines and labelling machines.
The containers to be handled are generally fed to and removed from these machines by means of a transport system including star wheels and linear conveyors.
Each filling machine generally comprises a conveying wheel, which is mounted to rotate about a rotation axis, and is provided with a plurality of handling units, which are mounted along a peripheral edge of the conveying wheel, and are fed by the conveying wheel along a path extending about the rotation axis.
Each handling unit comprises a support device for receiving and retaining a relative container and a filling device for feeding a pourable product into the container.
A problem of known filling machines is the formation of foam at the end of the operation of filling the container.
This problem is mainly caused by the fact that, for reasons of economy, commercial containers are not much larger than the volume required for accommodating the contents. Thus, during filling operations, which have to be carried out at high speed, it is common for some amount of liquid in the form of foam to bubble over the top of the container prior to the container being capped or sealed. The product loss can be as high as ten percent, which translates into higher cost for the consumer or lower profitability for the bottler, or both.
To reduce this product loss, each support device is rotated about a longitudinal axis of the container while the container is filled with the pourable product by the corresponding filling device.
Known filling machines of the type described above have some drawbacks mainly deriving from the fact that each support device is generally rotated about the longitudinal axis of the relative container by an electric motor, whose output shaft is connected with the support device by means of a pair of gears.
Known filling machines of the type described above are thus relatively complex and costly due to the high number of electric motors and transmission gears.